Martin Luther as History's First Tweeter?

A year from this month will mark five centuries since a Catholic monk in a backwater German town denounced church abuses by nailing a list of propositions to the door of the local cathedral — an act of defiance that turned out to be one of the most fateful moments in world history.

Martin Luther went on to become synonymous with the concept of speaking truth to power, and the date of his provocation, Oct. 31, 1517, has long been viewed as the official starting point for the Protestant Reformation that would sunder Christendom and trigger a series of vicious conflicts and political realignments that reshaped Europe.